Weekly Drawing - The Qilin (part 2)

Title: Qilin Among Redwoods

Size: 9 by 11 inches

This week I tried to add more color to the piece. Unfortunately, it seems I went overboard. To be frank, I am not very happy with my progress this week. The piece just feels overwhelmed with color. Just to be clear on what I did this week, I filled in the trees and ground using watercolor and added some gold acrylic to the qilin. 

This week I read a little bit on dendrochronology, the science of analysing tree's growth rings to date events. Obviously one can tell the age of a tree by counting the rings, but scientists can also use the rings to learn about the conditions the tree grew in that year. Temperature, rainfall, and pollution levels can all be found using tree rings. This is interesting, but really kind of unsurprising. What I thought was incredible was that scientists can use tree ring analysis to date landslides, lake level changes, glacial movement, fires, and insect population dynamics. 

Anyway, see you all later for my upcoming abstract portrait painting. :)